Open thread 8/22/23
At least they get to sit down now and then. But I still don’t know how they can do this:
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
At least they get to sit down now and then. But I still don’t know how they can do this:
The knees…. O, the knees!
Aaaack! Horrible flashbacks of practicing the Kazatski. Thank goodness the choreographer of the play hadn’t seen this.
Brandon has not been well received in Maui (confirmed death toll at 115 as of this morning): Mr. Clueless talked about– of all things– the death of his daughter and first wife in a traffic accident, and then had the gall to suggest that a kitchen fire in his house that was put out in 20 minutes is as serious as the devastation in Lahaina. ” . . . Maui residents are not happy with Biden. He’s been insensitive since the beginning, and they let him know how they felt:
PERSON: ‘After thirteen days. He’s finally here. Thanks for nothing. F*ck you. F*ck you.’ ”
https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/08/biden-claims-he-knows-how-maui-fire-victims-feel-by-talking-about-a-minor-fire-at-his-house/
Transcript of the Babbler-in-Chief’s remarks at the link.
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As for the Ukrainian dancers, I hope their dance company has a good orthopedic surgeon on speed dial. Their stamina as well as their flexibility is really impressive.
Cool video. Love those Ukies.
Maui residents are not happy with Biden. He’s been insensitive since the beginning, and they let him know how they felt
Yeah, but I bet most of them will all still dutifully line up to vote for him again over that Bad Orange Man in November 2024. We’ve seen it time and again in these deep blue enclaves, Democrat politicians can fail and fail and fail and fail some more, wasting vast fortunes in tax payer money and solving no problems and yet the voters in those areas will just keep voting them back in.
@Nonapod:Democrat politicians can fail and fail and fail and fail some more, wasting vast fortunes in tax payer money and solving no problems and yet the voters in those areas will just keep voting them back in.
To be fair, Republicans also continually send Republican politicians who fail to advance conservatism in any way.
In both cases, the politicians who are getting repeatedly sent back are doing good for SOMEONE. Lots of people get paid to work on problems that government creates. Lots of people get paid to do work for the government. Lots of people get paid by the government to do little or nothing.
Because Brandon is just like any Republican who isn’t conservative?
To be fair, Republicans also continually send Republican politicians who fail to advance conservatism in any way.
Not that I want to let RINOs off the hook, but a lot of that depends on your standard for what “advancing conservatism” entails. Any given (R) congress critter or governor or mayor or whatever may fail to meet a standard for any number of reasons, be they greed and corruption or just compromising too much. But as awful as RINOs and the spineless compromisers can be, they’re (usually) not anywhere near as destructive as leftwingers who are given unchecked power for extended periods of time can be. This is evidently clear by looking at most blue cities.
https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2023/08/22/the_progressive_benefactor_who_makes_us_barriers_to_foreign_cash_look_like_swiss_cheese_973986.html
om on August 22, 2023 at 11:23 am said:
Because Brandon is just like any Republican who isn’t conservative?
Pretty much, depending on how you define conservative. When I was in college the John Birch Society was organizing and a friend told me he was thinking of joining. I talked him out of it. It looked to me like a crazy magnet. There are anti-abortion groups that are being counter productive. This probably explains the 2022 disappointment. On January 6, I would not have dreamed of going to DC, let alone into the Capitol. Trump has been conservative on economic matters but sensible on cultural issues. I don’t know if I will vote for him again but the Democrats are crazy.
Unconfirmed, of course. But, if confirmed, this cuts the legs out from under the “he was bluffing and didn’t really have the Iran battle plans” crowd.
https://news.yahoo.com/mark-meadows-says-trump-left-164700291.html
@Nonapod:But as awful as RINOs and the spineless compromisers can be, they’re (usually) not anywhere near as destructive as leftwingers who are given unchecked power for extended periods of time can be.
They’re the pawl to the Dems’ ratchet. Both are needed for the leftward march to continue. A ratchet is a different thing from a pawl, but one can’t operate without the other. The Dems can’t do what they do without the RINOs.
who knows he wasn’t there, and didnt contact the people who had the task of declassifying
Oligonicella, check out the guy who shows up at 11:10!
https://youtu.be/AOgdrrzOi1A?si=Zv6TxR9EbArqkzu7
Frederick:
Much of the time, the Democrats certainly can do what they do without the RINOs. In deep blue states and cities, Democrats are in such a huge majority that they basically can do whatever they want. In Congress at the federal level, RINOs come into play when things are close. But when Democrats have majorities and a Democrat president, RINOs are often unnecessary for Democrats to get what they want.
Mike K:
Otay, Brandon is just a regular Joe, noting exceptionally bad. Being, “sensitive” on cultural issues is how you get to Drag Queen Story Hour, Transmogrification Madness,
Reparations, Buy Large Mansions, Reparations by Looting, normalization of pederasty, …..
Nope, Brandon is just a run of the mill politician no better or worse than your typical RINO. (sarc) In fact, Brandon is not so different than President Trump?(infinite sarc)
when they steal the state through ballot stuffing, yes of course they can put their puppet, so detroit milwaukee infects the rest of the state
mcconnell murkowski romney all rubber stamp the kakistocrats,
modest proposal
https://twitter.com/Shem_Infinite/status/1694031203169452167
Warfare by legal process. Federal prosecutor Jack Smith is setting new records in lawfare in his Captain Ahab pursuit of Trump.
11.5 million documents. And 5 months time at trial. That’s what Smith wants. More than double of the longest trial ever (5 million documents) — but it took over 7 years.
By contrast, the DC Court’s prosecution of J6 defendants took over 29 months, on average.
And THIS concerns docs alone — no audio or video.
DETAILS HERE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wSZmNq_KS40
Bauxite.
I see two issues with the Iran invasion paper. Three, actually, the third being what were the generals thinking.
If we have to invade, now is better than later, here’s our plan.
We really want to invade right the freak now and here’s the plan which can’t fail.
In case you want to invade, here’s the plan.
But, anyway, what is the issue in the classification? That it exists and nobody’s suppose to know?
Or that it has details which give the Iranians an advantage if they found them out?
In the first case, everybody knows it exists. We have plans to invade practically anyplace, just in case. There may have been an exception regarding Grenada in 82 where, iirc, we had to wing it to some confusion. A reorganization at high level followed.
Had a buddy in the old days who’d been in the 82d when they went into the Dominican Republic. Said their first objective was the gas stations for the maps.
So that it exists is a meaningless thing to make public.
The thousand and some pages necessary to accomplish it are not in the four-page outline. Any Corporal with a map could draw up a reasonable plan if all he had to do was four pages and a couple of diagrams. And Iranian intel knows a heck of a lot about their vulnerabilities and would be remiss if they didn’t think we did, too, and make plans for our plans.
So there is nothing, can be nothing, in the four pages which, if anybody found out about it, would give the Iranians an advantage, or even a clue.
And something they’d really like to know and exult in finding out….might be a plant.
We’re left with the technical issues. So he can claim he wiped it, like with a cloth, and no reasonable prosecutor would prosecute.
Curse you Steve. I’m going to go soak my knees now.
But, I’ll leave you all with some Ukrainians who are a little more lighthearted with their dancing.
Democrat creative necessity to “get Trump!” Perhaps I’ve closed my ears to the notion before, getting Trump declared ineligible to run for President. This one is so imaginative — but sound in theory. From American Thinker comes this insight:
“This language [of the Twenty-Second Amendment] offers Democrats the opportunity to eliminate both of their problems at the same time. Now, of course, it has risks, may be legally or constitutionally impossible, and has the potential to send the nation into chaos or a civil war, but as we’ve seen, none of those things is a barrier to Democrats doing anything, legal, illegal or unconscionable in order to win.
“So how does the 22nd Amendment offer the Democrats a way out of the morass they find themselves in? Simple: Make Donald Trump president again. Essentially this would involve Democrats revealing (admitting, really) that, after an unprecedented national investigation of the 2020 election, it turns out that, shockingly, Donald Trump was right and the election was tainted. He did, in fact, win the 2020 election.
“Check out the language of the Amendment. It says: “No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice…” It doesn’t require that the person has actually served as president for two terms. It literally only states that a person cannot be elected more than twice, without regard for whether he served in the position.
“So, in one action, Democrats can eliminate both of their problems. The first and most consequential is to keep the feared Donald Trump from running again. The second is to send Brandon to the sidelines, having undermined the only reason he’s even thought of by a single American, which is that he sits in the Oval Office.” https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/08/can_democrats_constitutionally_end_trumps_campaign.html
Well. Trump REALLY WON in 2020. THAT would be one bitter pill for Ds to swallow!
The inevitable con law question that matters is “does the popular election vote matter most? or do the Elector’s of the Electoral College vote matter most?” Or more broadly, what is the Real Election for President?
Of course, the latter, I’ll bet. The Fraud in Chief serves because of them. Which brought us the Korruptocrat currently filling that office.
Author Vince Conyer deserves plaudits for getting us to think through the possibility. It may even serve the coming year as a meme by which to tease and torture our D-Friends!
Play cat and mouse. Say, “have you heard yet about this as the ultimate ‘solution’?” How ‘bout trying out this tempting bit of cheese on yours? I think it’s safe to say, stranger things are already happening.
Caroming off a physicsguy comment, I’m reading “Students for a Democratic Society: A Graphic History” (mostly) written by Harvey Pekar and (mostly) drawn by Gary Dumm.
This history is presented as an educational underground comic book. Indeed that’s where Pekar and Dumm come from.
Pekar knew Robert Crumb, the premier underground comix artist, when they were in their 20s. Pekar was a wild, Jewish, leftist college drop-out, wannabe writer, who badgered Crumb into illustrating Pekar’s thin, slice-of-life, working-class stories.
Which may not sound promising, but it gave Pekar a start into a modest idiosyncratic career as a leftist writer doing semi-underground comix with accomplished artists in the field. It even led to his bizarre moments of fame as an odd gadfly appearing on the David Letterman show.
–“Harvey Pekar Isn’t A Showbiz Phony | Letterman”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IETY0NdSXY
Pekar’s “SDS” book is one of his last. He died the year after it was published.
I bring up his “SDS” book because it is a good, quick history of the SDS. This is the odd, tiny radical movement which has essentially taken over the Democratic Party, and to that extent, the United States.
Conservatives might benefit from reading on how the SDS managed this trick. They might also notice how well the accessible format of “SDS” communicates to a layman audience.
This is not a new format. There is a whole raft of “_____ for Beginners” books which look like innocent graphic self-learning texts, but are all written from a deeply leftist POV.
Conservatives could learn from the left — I don’t mean ballot harvesting — and it wouldn’t be a bad thing.
For extra credit, there was an award-winning docudrama on Pekar’s life with Paul Giamatti (before Paul Giamatti was Paul Giamatti) as Harvey Pekar:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Splendor_(film)
“American Splendor” was was the name of Pekar’s first comic book series. I was a devoted reader back then.
Richard Aubrey – Your argument is basically that there would be no harm in making the documents public.
It probably shouldn’t need to be argued, but you cannot defend a charge of mishandling or misappropriating classified documents by claiming that there was no harm in making the documents public. There is no such thing as a “no harm, no foul” defense to misappropriating classified documents. It is a core truth that there are some things that any government needs to keep secret. You cannot have a system in which every individual who encounters classified documents can appropriate or disclose them if they believe that there would be no harm in doing so. (See, for example, Reality Winner.)
On the substance, you’re speculating about what was in the document. The mere existence of even a four page battle plan prepared by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs to the President describing the invasion of a country with which we are not at war harms national security if disclosed. The likelihood that such a document includes information about military capabilities, tactics, and/or the like is high. In short, I don’t think “no harm no foul” will work for you here on the facts, even if such a defense was proper.
Concerned Conservative™ argues the Brandon position; the pursuit of The Great Orange Whale.
Why? Because he is.
RE: Things are not going well in China
I’ve been pointing out the tell tale signs of China’s general demographic decline and, now, as well, its economic decline–and since the real estate sector represents 30-40% of the Chinese economy–any problems there are big problems with many ripple effects.
So, the fact that one of China’s biggest property developers, Evergrande, with a reported $300 billion dollars in liabilities, and which was only developing some 800 projects, filed for bankruptcy in the last few days is an ominous sign.
Now comes the news that China’s largest property development company, Country Garden, with a reported 3,121 projects scattered around China’s provinces, has missed interest payments, and is also likely headed for bankruptcy, which appears to be a very dire development indeed. *
* See
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/18/china-property-crisis-deepens-as-developer-country-garden-at-risk-of-default-evergrande
See also https://money.usnews.com/investing/news/articles/2023-08-17/explainer-country-garden-how-bad-is-chinas-property-crisis
RE: China as the land of “facades and shortcuts”–China’s “tofu-dreg” construction
“Tofu-dreg” construction is shoddy construction.
See some pretty startling examples at https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/tofu-dreg-in-china.613409/
Bauxite:
It’s a well-known fact that we have contingency plans to attack just about everybody who could even remotely be called an enemy. Disclosing that discloses nothing.
Bauxite. As Neo–and I–said, the existence of a plan for invading Iran is not news. It cannot not exist. That its existence is classified is meaningless but likely solves some issue of continuity or something.
We have the plan, the Iranians know we have the plan because we have plans for a lot of things and they’d be at the top of the list. This makes no difference.
What details are in the–presumably four pages–plan are so broad and thus so vague that, even if Trump showed it to the Iranians instead of somebody in his office, the Iranians would be none the wiser. And we’re not sure he showed what passes for details in such a short draft to anybody. Maybe just waved it around in his big-mouth style.
Of course, we’d do…. thus and such.
Talked to a guy who’d just finished Major school–crap, I remember when he was born–and we kicked around the following: The 173d Airborne Brigade out of Vicenza is going to jump on Teheran airfield. Here’s the problem: How do we get enough transports to Vicenza to fly the op? Where do they come from? Show us the plan for notifying the losing units. Show us the units likely to lose their jets have a plan for getting them to Vicenza fast. Do we have enough gas in the tanks at Vicenza? If not, what’s the plan? Do the places where we’d get it know we might need it in Vicenza and show us their plan for replenishment. Are the tanks even big enough? Will there be enough maintainers to do the routine maintenance at the field? If not, where to they come from? Will they need refueling out of Lajes or the UK or someplace. If so….
Show us the losing units are aware and have contingency plans. How about crew quarters?
It got more complex from their, and we didn’t have enough beer to start on taking out the IADS so the guys could get to Teheran. Rough estimate, maybe forty pages. That doesn’t count following up the requests for the losing units to show their contingency plans for operating with fewer resources.
Now, I made all this up. But it’s so likely to be part of a plan that it might be classified. And if I can think of it–made First Lieutenant in 1970–so can the Iranian planners.
We are left with the technical issues. The import of the document’s coming to public knowledge–officially and not just as a matter of extremely common common sense–is meaningless.
I think that, in respect to publicizing top secret national security information, all Presidents should be held to the same standard as the New York Times, because anything they choose to print is obviously automatically declassified.
https://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/505/new-york-times-co-v-united-states
The Ukrainian dancers, in person, are full of life and joyful as well as beautiful. You just want to join with them! This compares to the Georgian dancers that you showed a few days previously, that are also beautiful and amazingly graceful, but more militaristic and dark. Interesting to compare as representatives of their cultures.